IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 768 

Recognizing the sense of the House of Representatives that it is in the 

United States national security interest for Israel to maintain control 

of the Golan Heights. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 7, 2016 

Mr. LAMBORN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

it is in the United States national security interest for 

Israel to maintain control of the Golan Heights. 

Whereas in exercising its right of self-defense during the Six 

Day War in 1967, Israel seized from Syria the Golan 

Heights, a strategically important plateau overlooking 

northeastern Israel; 

Whereas modern Syria, born in 1946, has descended into 

brutal civil war, with President Bashar al-Assad now controlling less than 25 percent of the country; 

Whereas despite recent advances by Syrian government 

troops, the Islamic State and other Sunni Islamists continue to control much of the territory President Assad 

once governed; 


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•HRES 768 IH 

Whereas since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, 

the violence has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands; 

Whereas over one million people have been wounded; 

Whereas more than 5 million refugees have fled Syria to 

neighboring countries and to Europe, and millions more 

have become internally displaced persons; 

Whereas according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 13.5 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance; 

Whereas the warring parties have compounded the problem 

by refusing humanitarian agencies access to civilians in 

need; 

Whereas a functioning nation-state is far from being constructed out of the currently warring Alawite, Shia, 

Sunni, Kurd, and Druze factions; 

Whereas until the Six Day War in 1967, Syria used a heavily 

fortified Golan as a platform to fire at Israeli villages 

below; 

Whereas Damascus also permitted the Palestinian Liberation 

Organization to use the Golan as a staging ground for 

terrorism; 

Whereas in the immediate aftermath of the Six Day War, 

Israel offered to negotiate the status of all the territories 

it had seized, and Syria, along with Israel’s other Arab 

neighbors, roundly rejected the offer; 

Whereas, in 1973, Arab nations launched the Yom Kippur 

war in an attempt to retake the territory (including the 

Sinai and Golan Heights), to which U.S. military assistance was critical in assisting Israel in repelling. It also 


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•HRES 768 IH 

caused tremendous tension between the U.S. and the 

USSR, and threatened a larger potential conflict; 

Whereas since 1992, four Israeli prime ministers have sought 

to achieve peace with Syria: all initiatives have failed; 

Whereas since being under Israeli control, the Golan has become a thriving site of agriculture, industry, and tourism; 

Whereas the Golan is home to approximately 20,000 Jewish 

Israelis, as well as 20,000 Druze, who speak Arabic and 

practice their own distinctive religion freely under Israeli 

control; 

Whereas the peace and security of Israel is in the United 

States national security interest; 

Whereas the region has been stable and the attacks against 

Israel have significantly decreased since Israel has controlled the Golan; 

Whereas the Golan Heights must not come under the control 

of Islamic State jihadists, Hezbollah or other terrorist 

groups; 

Whereas Israel has a legitimate territorial claim to the Golan 

Heights, and Israeli law has applied to the Golan for almost 35 years; 

Whereas Israel has exercised its authority in a manner that 

suits all the residents of the territory; and 

Whereas international law favors stability, order, and peace: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that it is in the United States national secuVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:41 Jun 08, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR768.IH HR768

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•HRES 768 IH 

1 rity interest for Israel to maintain control of the Golan 

2 Heights. 

Æ 


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